Sussex has been a prominent
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
county since the 17th century and
teams representing the county have generally been regarded as
important or
first-class. The earliest known move towards a permanent county organisation happened 17 June 1836 when a meeting in
Brighton established a Sussex Cricket Fund to support county matches. It was from this organisation that
Sussex County Cricket Club was formally constituted on 1 March 1839. The club played its initial first-class match against
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
at
Lord's on 10 & 11 June 1839. Sussex CCC is England's oldest
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
club, one of eighteen that play in the
County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...
at first-class level. The player appointed club
captain leads the team in all fixtures, except if unavailable, and the following 48 cricketers have held the post since formation of the county club in 1839.
Club captains
*
C. G. Taylor 1839–1846
*
E. Napper 1847–1862
*
J. H. Hale 1863
*
C. H. Smith 1864–1874
*
J. M. Cotterill 1874–1875
*
F. F. J. Greenfield 1876–1878, 1881–1882
*
C. Sharp 1879
*
R. T. Ellis 1880
*
H. Whitfeld 1883–1884
*
G. N. Wyatt 1885
*
F. M. Lucas 1886
*
C. A. Smith 1887–1888, 1890
*
W. Newham 1889, 1891–1892
*
W. L. Murdoch 1893–1899
*
K. S. Ranjitsinhji 1899–1903
*
C. B. Fry
Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could b ...
1904–1906, 1907–1908
*
C. L. A. Smith 1906, 1909
*
H. P. Chaplin 1910–1914
*
H. L. Wilson 1919–1921
*
A. E. R. Gilligan 1922–1929
*
A. H. H. Gilligan 1930
*
K. S. Duleepsinhji 1931–1932
*
R. S. G. Scott 1933
*
A. Melville 1934–1935
*
A. J. Holmes 1936–1939
*
S. C. Griffith 1946
*
H. T. Bartlett 1947–1949
*
J. Langridge 1950–1952
*
D. S. Sheppard 1953
*
G. H. G. Doggart 1954
*
R. G. Marlar 1955–1959
*
E. R. Dexter 1960–1965
*
The 9th Nawab of Pataudi 1966
*
J. M. Parks 1967–1968
*
M. G. Griffith 1968–1972
*
A. W. Greig 1973–1977
*
A. Long 1978–1980
*
J. R. T. Barclay 1981–1986
*
I. J. Gould 1987
*
P. W. G. Parker 1988–1991
*
A. P. Wells 1992–1996
*
P. Moores 1997
*
C. J. Adams 1998–2008
*
M. H. Yardy 2009–2012
*
E. C. Joyce 2013-2015
*
L.J. Wright 2016-2017
*
B.C. Brown 2017-2021
*
T.M. Head 2022
*
T.J. Haines 2022
*
C.A. Pujara 2022 to date
Sussex-born captains
Eight Sussex-born players have captained the club in first-class cricket, as follows:
*
C. H. Smith (born
Henfield
Henfield is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at the road junction of the A281 and A2037. Th ...
) 1864–1874
*
C. L. A. Smith (born
Henfield
Henfield is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at the road junction of the A281 and A2037. Th ...
) 1906, 1909
*
J. Langridge (born
Newick
Newick is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road east of Haywards Heath.
The parish church, St. Mary's, dates mainly from the Victorian era, but still has a N ...
) 1950–1952
*
R. G. Marlar (born
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
) 1955–1959
*
J. M. Parks (born
Haywards Heath) 1967–1968
*
A. P. Wells (born
Newhaven) 1992–1996
*
B.C. Brown (born
Cuckfield) 2017-2021
*
T. J. Haines (born
Crawley) 2022
See also
*
List of Sussex CCC players
This is a list in alphabetical order of cricketers who have played for Sussex County Cricket Club in top-class matches since it was founded in 1839. Like the Sussex county cricket teams, Sussex county teams formed by earlier organisations, inclu ...
Notes
Sources
* John Wallace, ''100 Greats – Sussex County Cricket Club'', Tempus, 2002
{{Sussex CCC
*
Captains
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex
Cricketers
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by strik ...